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Mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher will release his plan to make San Diego one of the world’s most bike-friendly cities. He will be joined by recreational cyclists, triathletes and other cycling enthusiasts.

San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher releases the latest of his position papers on Wednesday, his plan for turning San Diego into “one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world.” It is titled “Cycling to the Future: Creating New Transportation Options for San Diego.”

Fletcher’s plan for a bike-friendly city includes increasing safety for cyclists on city streets, providing more recreational opportunities, putting the city’s existing bicycle master plan into action and investing in the quality of city streets so that they can accommodate all modes of transportation.

In an interview in advance of the plan’s release, Fletcher cited the potential San Diego has to take its place among the great cycling cities.

“Portland should be saying that it wants to be like San Diego,” he said.

Ironically among the inspirations for Fletcher’s plan was the book “Joy Ride” by Mia Birk, one of the architects of the Oregon city’s ascendance to the top of the list of cycling-friendly regions.

Fletcher lists two major goals in his plan:

Increase the number of San Diegans cycling to work and school to 121,000 by 2020 from the current 65,000. According to Fletcher this would eliminate 11 million vehicle trips a year and remove 37,000 tons of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

Reduce the number of vehicle-related fatalities and injuries to cyclists to below the national average.

As for how these goals will be accomplished, Fletcher offers an array of proposals beginning with the adoption by city engineers of the progressive Urban Bikeway Design Guide which pulls the best practices of bike-friendly cities from around the world. Hand-in-hand with the Guide, Fletcher says he’ll commit his administration to following the state’s Complete Streets Act of 2008 which requires all new road design to accommodate all modes of transportation.

Fletcher says that San Diego’s current Bicycle Master Plan, approved in June 2011 is a good one. “What the plan doesn’t include,” he states, “is a plan of action or commitment from city leaders to find and allocate the resources we need to move the plan forward.”

Under this plan, San Diego’s existing 510 miles of “bike paths, lanes and routes” could be expanded to 878 miles of bike lanes and routes, 40 miles of bicycle boulevards and 7 miles of cycle tracks and well as 166 miles of multi-use paths.

He also plans to aggressively push for updates to the cities 40 community master plans, some of which have not changed in decades, with a vision toward connecting them with bicycle and pedestrian friendly roads and paths and transit.

Fletcher strongly backs the development of bike sharing programs, connecting them to Coaster and trolley stops. Fletcher also calls for an increase in low-cost road markings like bicycle lanes and “sharrows” (symbols that indicate a road must be shared by vehicles and bicycles).

Other proposals include periodically closing off streets to vehicles for a day and opening them to pedestrians and bicycles; publishing a regional bicycle map; setting up a mayor’s task force to identify sources for bicycle program funding; and developing a Bicycle Metrics Program to measure the gains from his program.

Fletcher also wants to expand the police department’s bicycle program which includes 25 officers and train officers to enforce bicycle related laws. Along with more police protection would come more education for cyclists of the rules of the road.

Fletcher’s “Cycling to the Future: is the latest in a series of position papers the candidate has issued on such topics as jobs, clean beaches and bays, education, government efficiency, military veterans and road and street maintenance.